The best K-pop award at the Video Music Awards has only been around for the last five years, and only three artists have ever won. One of these names is the Stray Kids.
Stray Kids aren’t a new name on the scene. Established through a JYP Entertainment survival show in 2017, the eight person boy group has since made its mark on the K-pop industry — and the music industry in general.
There’s only a handful of K-pop groups who can say they were featured on a movie soundtrack, especially when that movie is “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
So I think it’s safe to assume this might not be the first time you ever heard their name. And if it is, I believe it won’t be the last.
In every possible sense, one could say Stray Kids is the BTS of their generation. While K-pop as a genre and multiple other groups, such as ATEEZ or TXT, have been steadily gaining in popularity, I’ d argue only Stray Kids can come even close to comparing with the impact of BTS.
Well, maybe Blackpink could, if they weren’t releasing comeback albums every three years. But I digress.
While the majority of K-pop groups always had dedicated roles for every member — visual, main rapper, dancer, vocalist and so on — it is well established that all eight of these men (Bangchan, Felix, Seungmin, Han, I.N., Lee Know, Changbin and Hyunjin) are what is referred to as an Ace, or well, someone who fits all of those labels.
The group also has its subgroup, composed of the leader Bangchan, Han and Changbin referred to as “3Racha,” who are largely responsible for most of the songwriting.
Stray Kids has had five albums chart on the billboard 200 — 5-star, Maxident, Oddinary, ROCKSTAR and ATE — all of which peaked at No. 1. As of publication, they are the second male Korean act to surpass 8.3 billion streams on Spotify, and currently have over 11 million monthly listeners. And just recently, Stray Kids became the first Asian personality in history to feature on the cover of Rolling Stone UK.
What sets Stray Kids apart is their discography. While K-pop ecompasses diverse musical styles, Stray Kids’ goal has always been to pioneer a new musical subject that will be one day known as “the Stray Kids genre.”
Which is heavily inspired by hip- hop, dubstep, heavy metal, electroclash and psytrance. Stray Kids have also been credited by various publications as the pioneers of “mala taste music,” which is essentially defined as a genre of hot, strong and spicy songs. Listen to their song “God’s Menu” and it will explain everything you need to know.
And their newest mini-album “ATE” is just further proof of all that.
I could go into detail about every song, but it would all boil down to the singular fact that there is not a single skip on this album. Granted, it’s only seven songs and one festival version of “Chk Chk Boom,” but still.
The original version of “Chk Chk Boom” has already surpassed 80 million streams on Spotify in the 42 days since the album dropped, their fastest song to do so yet. And it features Hugh Jackman with Ryan Reynolds.
My personal favorite though, has to be “I Like it,” a song about situationships that the members swore couldn’t relate to in any way, with the silliest choreography ever. I might not agree with the message of that song, but it is just so catchy.
The group recently started their fourth world tour called Dominate after a summer of playing on various music festivals, and becoming the first male K-pop group to headline the annual BST Hyde Park Festival in London.
And after all of that, Stray Kids still didn’t get nominated for the best group at the 2024 VMA’s — even though groups that come from a company that is known for paying for votes and nominations have. Yes HYBE, talking about you.
I’m not salty. Well, maybe a bit. But no one can say they didn’t deserve it.
Stray Kids have created a great community among their fans. They chose their own group name, rather than being assigned one as most groups do, as it refers to lost children trying to find themselves and their dreams, which later created their fandom’s name, “Stays.”
Stray Kids everywhere all around the world, you make stray kids stay.
Brenna • Sep 5, 2024 at 8:58 pm
Dude I love straykids they are my favorite k-pop band I really want to go to one of there concerts but they usually aren’t close to me so ya. Anyways straykids have a nice day 😊 byeeee.
Jules • Sep 7, 2024 at 8:20 pm
I love them too and they deserve the entire world! But unfortunately, they’re even further from me. Hopefully we all get to see them one day.